Canada is dead wrong on drug reimportation

[HamdenRice]

<originally posted as a reply, I repost as an OP>

The Canadian politician who stated that Canada should not export drugs to the US was simply demonstrating his ignorance of the big pharma industry, and he has misled many people.

When the debate about Americans buying drugs in Canada first began, the MSM used a much more honest and revealing term to describe the process: drug reimportation. It was called reimportation, because Americans who purchase drugs from Canada are not buying some limited pool of Canadian-manufactured drugs; they are buying drugs made right here in the good ol' US of A. In other words, the so-called Canadian drugs are US or internationally manufactured drugs that have been exported to Canada, and then reimported back into the US at Canadian prices. This also shows the utter absurdity and dishonesty of shrub administration claims about the safety of drug imports from Canada; they are the same damned drugs!

This means that when we buy Canadian drugs, we are not snatching those drugs from the mouths of our Canadian bothers and sisters. If Americans purchase vast amounts of drugs from Canada, Canadian drug companies will simply import more of those drugs to meet the demand. The only Canadian resources we would be straining would be their postal service, Canadian branches of Federal Express and warehouses -- all at a tidy profit!

The whole reimportation system just shows that the prices of drugs are completely arbitrary. Big pharma wants to set them at whatever price the market will bear, even though the health insurance system, and the fact that many drugs are absolutely life saving means that there is no really effective, normal market for these drugs. So progressive, rational governments all over the world (except the US) realize that drug prices must be regulated and set by democratic political processes, not by big pharma extortion of the sick. All Canada really exports with its drugs is its public interest oriented and patient friendly drug regulatory system.

Reimportation actually is a kind of consumer-friendly globalization. Just as corporations use globalization to create a "race to the bottom" with respect to wages, labor conditions and environmental regulation -- that is in terms of the prices they pay for things -- drug reimportation and other forms of the international consumer market creates a consumer driven race to the bottom in terms of prices we as consumers pay for things.

What's good for the corporate goose is good for the consumer gander. Anything else is stacking the globalization deck in favor of the corporations.

[goddess40]

1. "couldn't continue BULK orders"

That is what our local news reported. Sounds like individuals would still be ok.

[TayTay]

2. Big Pharma has threatened Canada with pullouts

if they continue to sell drugs to the US. Canadians are not responsible for fixing what is wrong with the US health care distribution system. Americans are responsible for that. If the drugs are too expensive in America and the system sucks, then WE have to fix it ourselves and not rely on the Canadians to do it for us or give us a temporary fix.

This is an American problem, not a Canadian one. American politicians have to stand up to Big Pharma and the Pharma lobby and demand that something be done. I don't blame the Canadians for looking out for their own people.I just wish that American pols were looking out for their own people.

[enkidu2]

3. amen and amen again

and moreover american citizens have to be focusses less on their own individual needs and more on those of their fellow citizens. Part of what impresses me so much about the canadian health care system is the canadian publics support for it and the apparently unamerican concept of being concerned about the health of your neighbor!

[HamdenRice]

4. And all the soldiers must put down their guns and end world hunger NOW!

You wrote: "This is an American problem, not a Canadian one. American politicians have to stand up to Big Pharma and the Pharma lobby and demand that something be done."

But that is as unrealistic as saying we need to stop all violence and end world hunger. Yes these are lofty goals, but they are not happening today, tomorrow or next year. Meanwhile, people die of lack of drugs and big pharma grows ever richer and more powerful, fed by hyper-profits.

Our politicians are bought and paid for by big pharma right now, and until there is an overhaul of the political system, we will not get a regulated drug delivery system.

One way of breaking the political log jam is using the very tools that big business has used to break unions, circumvent environmental laws and kill mom and pop business -- namely, internationalized markets.

We can use international markets to break the stranglehold of big pharma and in the long run, reduce its power to a level that will be manageable by the political system.

Use their tools against them.

[TayTay]

6. No, we have to fix our own mess

The need for affordable medications is building. In a representative democracy, the need builds and the people put pressure on their reps to address those needs. If the needs are not addressed, the people get rid of the unresponsive pols.

It hasn't happened yet. I agree with that. But the crisis in health care is not going away, it's growing. We have to solve our own problems and we have a politicial system that can do it. Complacency can last when the needs are not affecting enough people. Those days are rapidly fading away.

[HamdenRice]

8. Dude! We don't even have fair elections any more and you think ...

the "representative democracy" consisting of RW, neo-fascist republicans controlling the executive, Congress and the courts, is going to control pharma costs? Yes, it's a long term goal, but in the meantime, reimporting Canadian drugs is an extremely effective short term and medium term stratgey.

Until we have political nirvana, we have to medically treat people without bankrupting them.

[Sooner75]

5. Canada wants to take care of their own

Big Pharma may be involved since they're so very, very busy protecting their franchise in the US. However, when I heard this discussed in the news, they said that the Canadians were concerned about having the capacity to handle their own needs. As TayTay notes, they know they can't fix our mess. Their concern is a real one in my view. Canada is 34 million people. The US is 280-290 million people.

[HamdenRice]

7. Please try to understand the main point -- and it's a very, very important

point, because it explains so much about the market abuse of big pharma: They are the exact same drugs. I don't mean they are the same forulas; I mean they are physically the same pills, boxes and wrappers. The Canadian drugs would be reimported back to the US, from whence they came.

Put it another way: They are our drugs, but if they simply move a few feet within the Canadian border, their price drops under Canadian law, and come right back in.

There is not a Canadian inventory of drugs and an American inventory, such that a surge of American demand would take drugs away from the Canadians. They are the exact same drugs, most produced outside of Canada.

Drug prices are therefore completely arbitrary. The only burden that would be placed on Canada would be on transshipment costs -- for which the Canadian FedEx would be amply compensated.

The real issue is not the one Canadian politicians dare mention. They are lying to us all. The real issue is, as one poster mentioned, that big pharma threatens to retaliate against Canada.

But that is an empty threat. They will not give up on a market of some 30 million people with good health care insurance.